About half of people with alcoholism will develop withdrawal symptoms upon reducing their use.[2] Of these, three to five percent develop DTs or have seizures.[2] The name delirium tremens was first used in 1813; however, the symptoms were well described since the 1700s.[6] The word "delirium" is Latin for "going off the furrow," a plowing metaphor.[4] It is also called shaking frenzy and Saunders-Sutton syndrome.[4]Nicknames include the shakes, barrel-fever, blue horrors, bottleache, bats, drunken horrors, elephants, gallon distemper, quart mania, and pink spiders, among others.[8]

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Contents

Signs and symptoms

The main symptoms of delirium tremens are nightmares, agitation, global confusion, disorientation, visual and[9] auditory hallucinations, tactile hallucinations, fever, high blood pressure, heavy sweating, and other signs of autonomic hyperactivity (fast heart rate and high blood pressure). These symptoms may appear suddenly, but typically develop two to three days after the stopping of heavy drinking, being worst on the fourth or fifth day.[10] Also, these "symptoms are characteristically worse at night".[11] In general, DT is considered the most severe manifestation of alcohol withdrawal and occurs 3–10 days following the last drink.[9] Other common symptoms include intense perceptual disturbance such as visions of insects, snakes, or rats. These may be hallucinations or illusions related to the environment, e.g., patterns on the wallpaper or in the peripheral vision that the patient falsely perceives as a resemblance to the morphology of an insect, and are also associated with tactile hallucinations such as sensations of something crawling on the subject—a phenomenon known as formication. Delirium tremens usually includes extremely intense feelings of "impending doom". Severe anxiety and feelings of imminent death are common DT symptoms.

DT can sometimes be associated with severe, uncontrollable tremors of the extremities and secondary symptoms such as anxiety, panic attacks and paranoia. Confusion is often noticeable to onlookers as those with DT will have trouble forming simple sentences or making basic logical calculations.

DT should be distinguished from alcoholic hallucinosis, the latter of which occurs in approximately 20% of hospitalized alcoholics and does not carry a significant mortality. In contrast, DT occurs in 5–10% of alcoholics and carries up to 15% mortality with treatment and up to 35% mortality without treatment.[12] DT is characterized by the presence of altered sensorium; that is, a complete hallucination without any recognition of the real world. DT has extreme autonomic hyperactivity (high pulse, blood pressure, and rate of breathing), and 35-60% of patients have a fever. Some patients experience seizures.[citation needed]

Causes

Delirium tremens is mainly caused by a long period of drinking being stopped abruptly. Withdrawal leads to a biochemical regulation cascade. It may also be triggered by head injury, infection, or illness in people with a history of heavy use of alcohol.[citation needed]

Another cause of delirium tremens is abrupt stopping of tranquilizer drugs of the barbiturate or benzodiazepine classes in a person with a relatively strong addiction to them.[citation needed] Because these tranquilizers' primary pharmacological and physiological effects stem from their manipulation of the GABA chemical and transmitter somatic system, the same neurotransmitter system affected by alcohol, delirium tremens can occur upon abrupt decrease of dosage in those who are heavily dependent. These DTs are much the same as those caused by alcohol and so is the attendant withdrawal syndrome of which they are a manifestation. That is the primary reason benzodiazepines are such an effective treatment for DTs, despite also being the cause of them in many cases. Because ethanol and tranquilizers such as barbiturates and benzodiazepines function as positive allosteric modulators at GABAA receptors, the brain, in its desire to equalize an unbalanced chemical system, triggers the abrupt stopping of the production of endogenous GABA. This decrease becomes more and more marked as the addiction becomes stronger and as higher doses are needed to cause intoxication. In addition to having sedative properties, GABA is an immensely important regulatory neurotransmitter that controls the heart rate, blood pressure, and seizure threshold among myriad other important autonomic nervous subsystems.[citation needed]

Delirium tremens is most common in people who have a history of alcohol withdrawal, especially in those who drink the equivalent of 7 to 8 US pints (3 to 4 l) of beer or 1 US pint (0.5 l) of distilled beverage daily. Delirium tremens also commonly affects those with a history of habitual alcohol use or alcoholism that has existed for more than 10 years.[13]

Pathophysiology

Delirium tremens is a component of alcohol withdrawal hypothesized to be the result of compensatory changes in response to chronic alcohol abuse. Alcohol positively allosterically modulates the binding of GABA, resulting in disinhibition of neurons projecting into the nucleus accumbens, as well as inhibiting NMDA receptors. This combined with desensitization of alpha-2 adrenergic receptors, results in a homeostatic upregulation of these systems in chronic alcohol use. When alcohol use ceases, the unregulated mechanisms result in hyperexcitability of neurons as natural GABAergic systems are down-regulated and excitatory glutamatergic systems are unregulated. This combined with increased noradrenergic activity results in the symptoms of delirium tremens.[14]

Acamprosate is occasionally used in addition to other treatments, and is then carried on into long-term use to reduce the risk of relapse. If status epilepticus occurs it is treated in the usual way. It can also be helpful to control environmental stimuli, by providing a well-lit but relaxing environment for minimizing distress and visual hallucinations.[citation needed]

Alcoholic beverages can also be prescribed as a treatment for delirium tremens,[16] but this practice is not universally supported.[17]

High doses of thiamine often by the intravenous route is also recommended.[2]

Society and culture

Drawing by Donald Ogden Stewart published in 1921 showing Little Elmer's father with DTs and seeing pink elephants

American writer Mark Twain describes an episode of delirium tremens in his book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). In Chapter 6, Huck states about his father, "After supper pap took the jug, and said he had enough whisky there for two drunks and one delirium tremens. That was always his word." Subsequently, Pap Finn runs around with hallucinations of snakes and chases Huck around their cabin with a knife in an attempt to kill him, thinking Huck is the "Angel of Death."

The M*A*S*H (TV series) episode "Bottoms Up" (Season 9, Episode 15) featured a side story about a nurse (Cpt. Helen Whitfield) who was found to be drinking heavily off-duty. By the culmination of the episode, after a confrontation by Maj. Margaret Houlihan, the character swears off her alcoholism and presumably quits immediately. At mealtime, an unspecified time later (roughly 48 hours, according to Maj. Houlihan), Whitfield becomes hysterical upon being served food in the Mess tent, claiming that there are things crawling onto her from it. Margaret and Col. Sherman Potter subdue her. Potter, having recognized the symptoms of delirium tremens (which he abbreviates "the DTs"), orders 5 ml of Paraldehyde from a witnessing nurse.

^Cameron, Kate. "The Lost Weekend effectively portrays the damage caused by alcoholism on screen"Archived 2017-02-16 at the Wayback Machine., New York Daily News, January 2, 1945, reprinted February 17, 2015. Accessed February 15, 2017. "If you read the book, which was a best-seller last year, you know that Jackson did a remarkable job of recording the actions of Birnam, during a weekend binge of monumental proportions, and in setting down in graphic prose the effects produced on him by liquor. In adapting the book to the screen, Brackett and Wilder have accomplished an equally remarkable feat of projecting a case of delirium tremens on screen."